Mutant sheep.

It seemed like a lovely day for a walk through the grasslands of Jellyland. Mr Orange hadn't been feeling so peachy recently, so thought the fresh air would do him good. He had been walking for an hour or so and was in the heart of the grasslands. The terrain was quite tough going, as not too many people ventured this far, but he was an adventurous soul and could not resist getting off the beaten track.

All of a sudden he came across some oddly coloured sheep. Initially he thought it was just the farmer dying them in order to find them more easily. The grasslands did cover a very large area of Jellyland after all.

What Mr Orange did not realise is that these sheep had been part of a biological experiment and had managed to escape their compound. The sheep were infact infected with a virulent strain of SOM (Shaun Oves Mortius) which turned them into zombie sheep.

Not a good day for Mr Orange.

The End.

Peace x

All photographs by Caroline Harvey

Pain, rain and peanut butter.

It has just been one of those weeks that you just think "What is going to happen next?" Nothing in particular was a major problem, but I just did lots of little things that were either unusual for me to do or just stupid. For example I left work and left my van open and unlocked, left my front door unlocked over night, dinged my van, boxes fell out the van a scraped down my shin! I blame the fact that I have a sore head since our bike ride last Saturday. At the start of the week it felt like my head would explode but it has eased off considerably now, but still just does not feel right.

I think it has been a mixture of dehydration and tense neck muscles so have been trying to drink more water and doing self neck massage! It didn't help that the weather has been slightly oppressive. I always think that the gray weather ways down on my psyche quite alot, and this week it was very gray.

There is however a happy ending to this story. I am sometimes partial to a wee peruse around TKMaxx on my way home from work on a Friday and since I got away sharp and it was pay day.... I found to my surprise that they had a brand of peanut butter that I have only ever had in the States. I love this stuff. On my year trip I virtually survived on this spread over a corn tortilla with mushed banana and honey. Heaven.

A selection of pain killers.

Rain.

More rain.

Heaven. God bless the US of A.

Peace x

All photographs by Caroline Harvey.

Wet Wet Wet.

I have driven many miles in the rain over the past few days. Not much fun. Here are a couple of pics I took at some point over the last couple of weeks when the sun dared to shine.

A dandy fly eye!

Blossom.

Come back sunshine and warmth, we love and miss you.

Peace x

All photographs by Caroline Harvey

The Lovely Lost Ladies of Lauder.

I was certainly not very lovely yesterday, but lost we were.

Beth and I had signed up for a charity bike ride called "Tour de Lauder" which took place yesterday. We entered for the 50 mile route which was to take us through the very undulating landscape of the Borders.

I was quite nervous about the event as I have been having problems with my knee on our longer cycle rides and it had been over a fortnight since I had been out on Dolly, so was slightly concerned to say the least. The weather looked quite horrific for the day, with heavy rain forecast over much of the country. So in the interest of just getting round the route as comfortably as possible I decided to go on my old faithful mountain bike.

It was an early start as we had to be down at Thirlestain Castle for 8.15am. The weather looked bleak as we headed south, but there were patches of brightness, so we crossed our fingers.We met up with a couple of Beth's friends, signed in and got ourselves ready for the big off.

I had not cycled on old faithful in a while and as good as she is for commuting around the town she is not the best for actual road cycling in the manner I have become accustomed to on Dolly, but my confidence was high as we have cycled many a hundred mile together with no pain.

All was going well as we reached the watering station at the almost half way point. The weather was good and no pain. However as soon as we started cycling again, my knee started to hurt, and not just in a gradual build up kind of way but in a "oohya" and a few sweary words kind of way. Not happy!

It was at this point that things just got a little bit mad. A couple of minor route finding problems led to us doing a couple of extra miles which just added to the conflict going on in my head. Should I stop or should I go on? Thankfully Beth is also a walking pharmacy so topped up on some pain killers and managed to cycle, quite slowly and mostly upwards but onwards none the less.

We made it to the 2nd watering station. Ten miles to go nearly there. Happiness almost returning. A quick refreshment and we were on our way once again. I had been paying more attention to the yellow route markers, but somehow, and I am still not sure how, we both did not see one of the last signs that should have taken us back in to Lauder. We got to 58 miles when we realised that the markers we were following were for the beginning of the route. We stopped checked the map and realised that we were now about 15 miles from where we were due to finish. I have to say that my heart just fell into my shoes at that point, there was no way I could physically or mentally make the journey back. I hate admitting defeat and it is not something that sits well with me. When I set myself a challenge I aim to complete that challenge no matter what, but this time it was not meant to be. I felt really bad for Beth as she was cycling well and looking strong all day and she quite possibly would have made it back without too much trouble.

We were rescued by a volunteer in a mini bus. His two young children nicknamed us "The lovely lost ladies of Lauder".

If we had made the correct turn we would have made it back in a fairly decent time and we would have not gotten wet. The only rain of the day came as we stood under a tree waiting to be rescued which did not really help my mood. So I would just like to say a huge thank you to Beth and a big sorry for being a total winge bag for much of the day.

Fingers crossed that I can sort out my knee problem soon.

The man in the white is Mark Beaumont. We presumed he had no problem with the route finding.

Pre Race.

Peace x

All photographs by Caroline Harvey.

Poor Mr Pink!

Spirits were high as Mr Pink, Mr Maroon and Miss Lemon set out on their adventure up the mountain. Grosse Gelatin was the highest mountain in all of Jellyland. The going was tough but they found a good ledge where they stopped to admire the view. Mr Pink even found time to smile, and so he should, he had been training hard for this day.

However, the smiles did not last long. Upon reaching the top of the mountain, where the air is very thin, Mr Pink suddenly collapsed and died. Miss Lemon and Mr Maroon could only look on in horror.

The End.

A very short story by Caroline Harvey.

Peace x

All photographs by Caroline Harvey.

London Baby!

I have not ever really been on too many weekend breaks, so it was exciting to be getting away from my usual Edinburgh weekend and swapping it for one in London.

Our friend Kirsty moved down there nearly 2 years ago and it has taken us this long to get organised and pay her a visit. In fact it has taken us so long that she is moving house again in a few weeks time!

Anyway, Beth and I booked our excursion a few months back and got a reasonably cheap deal with BMI that took us to Heathrow where we were duly collected and whisked away to start our weekend of fun.

I won't go on at length about the details of our every move but we visited Camden Market on the Saturday as well as central London before heading back to Richmond for dinner and drinks. On the Sunday we went to Portobello Road and Westfield shopping centre before flying home.

It was a fantastic way to spend a couple of days. Great friends, good laughs and some lovely food and drink to add to the mix. A very special commendation has to go to Kirsty, who was struggling with a very bad cold but somehow managed to fight through and not only look fantastic but she made sure that Beth and I had  an excellent mini adventure.

London is a great destination to visit for a city break as it has so much variety to offer ( and I am only talking shops here, we did not do the touristy stuff). Like all big cities it is very busy and it takes time to acclimatize to when you are used to Edinburgh, which is a mere village by comparison. The Westfield shopping centre alone is vast and has its' own map! You don't need one of them in the Gyle.

One thing I can tell you is that I am glad I am going to be no where near the chaos that the Olympics will bring. It will be horrendous. I really have no idea how the tube system will cope. There are going to be some very pissed off commuters that is for sure.

Here is a very brief photo log of our weekend.

We were here.

Lunch time.

Dr Martins, yeah baby!

Cool shoe.

Refreshments.

We were here.

More refreshments.

Girl kisses!

Funny.

Ladies that blur.

Pretty.

We were here.

Porty but no beach.

Tube times.

Peace x

All photographs by Caroline Harvey.

A little bit of history.

The Tay rail bridge.

I was sitting having a wee break yesterday in my usual Dundee spot, when 2 trains passed on the rail bridge. It got me thinking about the Tay bridge disaster and how I could not remember a damn thing I had ever been told about it. I think I have vague recollections about it from primary school. So I have googled it to try and rekindle some of my Scottish history memories. You can still see some of old bridge pillars when the tide is low.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Bridge_disaster

http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/gems/the-tay-bridge-disaster

History lesson over.

Peace x

All photographs by Caroline Harvey

April? Yeah right!

Calendar says it's April.

I think we were all lulled into a false sense of Spring and Summer with that one gorgeous week of warm sunny weather at the end of March. So the snow, hail, wind, rain and cold temps were a bit of a shock this week.  My flat is now especially cold, as I switched my heating off thinking Summer was here and I'll be damned if I am putting it back on.

Weather not so Aprilish.

Anstruther harbour.

Snow on the Pentlands.

Been a long week at work, driven many miles and some very long days, but all good really. Not so grumpy this week, thankfully, and I have a 3 day weekend. So I think I will leave it at that for this post.

Mum's new beautiful garden.

Random earring in my shoe!

Peace x

All photographs by Caroline Harvey.

Grumpy old woman.

I am not sure when it happened, but I would now classify myself as a grumpy old woman. Not all the time obviously, but sometimes the overwhelming urge to grump is just too powerful to ignore. Last week I found myself grumping about many things, mostly to myself admittedly, but will share some of these grumps with you now.

1) The Government and their stupid petrol crisis nonsense.
2) The Government and their even more stupid petrol crisis advice.
3) People in general who take heed of the Government and their stupid warnings and advice.
4) People, generally women, who still think that they are sitting gossiping in Starbucks when in actual fact they are driving a car. They should realise that there is also a minimum speed on motorways and that the lines painted on the roads are there for a reason, not just to make it look pretty.
5) BT for doing line maintenance thus rendering my internet connection impossible. Do they not realise it is my only connection to the outside world and why do it at dinner time on a Thursday!
6) The Range Rover Evoque. It just looks like it has been sat on by an elephant.

I am sure there were more but I will only go in a bad mood again if I talk about them. So things that have made me happier in between grumps or made me smile.

1) The sunny weather. Global warning is great sometimes.
2) The fields of daffodils on the A90 around Montrose. They are true fields of gold, if you drive past roll down the window as they smell fantastic too.
3) The changes of colour in the landscape. The red ploughed fields on the A90 are also amazing.
4) The police ticketing a guy in Stonehaven for parking on the zigzags as he popped into a bakers to get his lunch. Expensive roll.
5) Seeing a magnificent stag standing on the edge of a hill.
6) Seeing blue traffic cones!

One observation this week that may help you from having a grumpy day at some point. If you are ever sat behind or to the side of a fully loaded animal truck, make sure you roll your windows up. It would take a lot of cleaning to get the smell of cow urine out of your upholstery.

Anyway enough of my mind meanderings here are a few photos.

Arbroath Abbey.

Huntly Castle.

Royal daffs.

Crathie.

Stonehaven harbour.

Loch Achray.

Grangemouth (Saturdays scenic cycle)

Peace x

All photgraphs by Caroline Harvey.